Yeah, it's really worth reading the whole thing. I especially liked the FAQs bit at the end!
Here's some of the more interesting quotes:
Quote:
...So what is “Platform Publishing”? It’s a partnership program in which SOE and an independent developer work together to release a game. It’s very different from SOE’s main publishing efforts, where they develop the games internally (i.e. Everquest 2, Star Wars: Galaxies). Instead the developer makes the game, SOE publishes it, and together we divvy up the various responsibilities.
...
Let me tell you a few things that are different about working with SOE than with the other MMO publishers we talked with:
1) We keep complete ownership of Pirates of the Burning Sea.
2) We have no interference from SOE on the development/ideas of the game.
3) Because we financed Pirates ourselves, we keep most of the revenues so we stay strong and independent.
4) The contract they gave us actually says what we agreed to verbally.
...
Here’s exactly what SOE brings to this that we want:
1) Strong distribution – We want Pirates of the Burning Sea to be in every retail store that carries games. SOE has that down cold.
2) Great localization process – We really want a simultaneous launch in Europe and the US because we think it could do as well over there as over here. Working with SOE gives us the best chance of making that happen.
3) Enthusiasm – I really can’t stress this enough. You can write a contract to say anything you want about how much work each party will do, but that’s nothing compared to having your partners genuinely excited to work with you, from the marketing people to the programmers to the executives. And boy, are they excited. (You would be, too, if a great game fell into your lap!)
4) Clockwork process – We want to launch Pirates this fall. The game is in great shape and we’re going into large-scale beta testing this week. To hit a fall launch date, we needed a partner who knows the entire process inside and out, someone who can just start turning the crank and making it happen.
...
Platform Publishing is a channel for independent developers to compete on the same level as a big publisher – without selling their soul.
...
Will Pirates be on Station Access Pass?
Yes. For one price you can play EQ, EQ2, Pirates, and everything else SOE has to offer.
Can I pre-order?
There will be pre-order boxes in stores this summer.
The changes SOE made to Star Wars: Galaxies have been really controversial. Aren’t you afraid that you’ll be next?
No. The design of the game is entirely in our control.
...
I hate SOE and I will never play your game.
That’s okay. I’m sure there will be people who play our game and then hate it anyway. We can’t make everyone happy but I can make you this promise: if Pirates isn’t good, if you don’t like how the game is designed, or how the servers are operated, or how we interact with our community, it’ll be our fault, not SOE’s. We own the game and the buck stops here.
...
Will the Flying Lab forums continue, or will there be a new Sony Pirates forum?
We’ve gone to a lot of effort to build a thriving community here, and we have every intention of continuing it. We own community management, so our website forum will still be the place to go. You’ll need to create a free SOE account that links to our forums, because we’re using their servers for downloading the beta and other backend things, but Aether and the rest of us will still be here on the forums every day as usual.
Hey, what about that expanded beta you’ve talked about recently? Does this affect it?
Nope. We’ll be releasing our big new build to the beta in the next 24 hours and after a couple weeks of shakedown time, we’ll be inviting 10,000 new beta testers in to try it out!
...
you can attend our next IRC Devchat that we’ve scheduled for Tuesday, June 26th at 2:00p PST (GMT -8) in #potbs-devchat on the irc.coldfront.net server.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
- RETIRED
